Fucking Artifacts: Re-examining the Roles of Expletives in Culture andAcademia

Much Wine had past with grave discourse, Of who Fucks who, and who doesworse. Lord Rochester, Poems on Several Occasions

How in the fuck should I know? William Burroughs, Naked Lunch

Academic writing often excludes profanities, and often ignores them as thesubject of literary scrutiny, even though they are abundant withinliterature and constitute a significant and legitimate portion ofvernacular language. Recently, the Wikipedia entry for “fuck” has provideda surprising history for the contentious cultural artifact. It appears tohave started out as any other word might, appearing in 16th and 17thcentury poetry and drama, early 20th century Louis Armstrong songs, andthe WWII military acronyms, “SNAFU” and “FUBAR.” Despite its protractedand prolific history, “fuck” was officially included in the Oxford EnglishDictionary just over thirty years ago.Typically, explicit expressions are taken for granted as gratuitous andinarticulate, yet they usually evoke (or provoke) very specific referencesand strong emotions. As the basis of various expressions, such as “a goodfuck,” “fuck off,” and “fuck up,” the term “fuck,” for example, is a siteof intersecting and conflicting meanings, including sexual gratification,contempt, and failure. My hope for this panel is to question commoncharacterizations and presumptions of these colloquial artifacts.A diverse range of approaches to the topic is encouraged: new historicist,feminist, medievalist, film studies, etc. Papers may address, but are notlimited to:

- “fuck” as a term of both desire and spite (in relation to history orliterature or neither)- swearing in academia, or simply “swearing in”- the roles of profanity in culture or in so-called subcultures (such asonline gaming)- situating artful/factual uses of, or attitudes towards, foul language(i.e. as fetish?)- censorship and/or desensitization- “curse” words in religious/spiritual contexts- obscenity as “expletive” or “explicit” artifact- writing the “bawdy”